This invention relates to reduced calorie food compositions, and more particularly to compositions which can be used in place of flour as the farinaceous component in leavened and non-leavened baked goods.
There is increasing interest in foodstuffs having a reduced caloric content, and especially in low-calorie baked goods. Such baked goods are desirable for reducing body weight in persons who are clinically obese, without using appetite suppressants, and also for preventing unwanted weight gain in normal persons. One approach to reducing the caloric value of baked goods has been to replace part of the flour or other carbohydrate components (e.g. sugar or starch) with agents which are substantially non-digestible, and hence non-caloric. For example, various forms of purified plant cellulose, such as the crystalline alpha-cellulose sold under the Tradename "Solka-Floc," and the microcrystalline cellulose sold under the Tradename "Avicel," have been proposed as partial flour substitutes. See further U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,978,446, 3,023,104 and 3,141,875. However, the cellulosic flour substitutes currently available suffer from the major disadvantage that they can only be used up to a replacement level of about 20%, which leads to a caloric reduction in the final baked goods of only about 10%. When the currently available cellulosic flour substitutes are used at replacement levels greater than about 20%, the baked goods obtained are of unsatisfactory quality from the standpoint of taste and texture. They produce goods which leave a residual, gritty, fibrous feeling in the mouth, which is not obviated by reducing the particle size of the cellulosic material. It is generally agreed, however, that calorie reduction of as high as 25% to 30% in baked goods in extremely desirable, and heretofore it has not been possible to achieve these calorie reduction levels by the use of cellulosic flour replacement alone. It has been necessary also to replace or remove other natural, common ingredients of farinaceous baked goods. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,979,523.
In like manner, the non-digestible modified starches which have been proposed as non-caloric flour substitutes suffer from the major disadvantage that they produce unsatisfactory baked goods when used at high replacement levels. For example, Belgian Pat. No. 844,345 discloses certain modified starches which can be improved by the addition of a small proportion of an emulsifier such as lecithin. However, even the latter flour substitutes produce unsatisfactory baked goods at replacement levels above about 20 to 25 percent. At replacement levels above about 20 to 25%, they produce baked goods of unacceptably low volume and unsatisfactory texture.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide improved flour substitutes, which produce highly satisfactory baked goods at use levels which can be as high as 70% replacement of the flour component. Baked goods produced using 70% replacement of the flour by an equal weight of a flour substitute of this invention have about 30% to 35% fewer calories per unit weight than conventional baked goods.